If true, the ISM—an affiliate of the anarchist/communist wing of the PLO—would be on par with professional news services such as CNN, Fox, and Associated Press. In addition, the Palestinian Authority has announced through its WAFA news agency that the ISM will be given an official license as a separate news agency, according it the same media status as the news giants.

It is not for balanced news coverage that the ISM is known. Although styling itself as a “peace group,” the ISM is in fact a vigorously anti-Israel group, notorious for bringing anti-Israel activists from around the world to the Holy Land. By its own admission, the ISM has plainclothes Palestinian “handlers” guiding ISM activities against anti-terror operations in the West Bank and Gaza, including providing cover for stone throwers. (An Ethiopian Jewish-Israeli soldier was killed in a stone throwing incident just three weeks ago, and another Israeli soldier lost an eye.) The ISM’s ill-concealed mission, meanwhile, is to provide cover for Palestinian terrorist activities while frustrating the anti-terror operations of the Israeli army. (More detailed information on the ISM and its support for terrorism can be found here.).

StoptheISM has further learned that the North Carolina chapter of the ISM, which last year hosted an anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hatefest at Duke University, has received confirmation from Google News that the ISM website palsolidarity.org will be included in Google News “in the near future” or “within four to six weeks.”

According to our source, this was confirmed by Google for Dave Reed, who is in charge of website development for the ISM. The correspondence also thanks the ISM for providing “articles” to Google News.

The ISM's work is apparently well-received by the Google News staff, which e-mails news "alerts" to people on a regular basis. A review of the ISM's past media stunts offers a window into the kind of alerts that Google is likely to dispatch under ISM influence:

* Purporting to be a neutral "peace group," the ISM frequently invents tales of atrocities by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians that it sends to its members and tries to get into US and European newspapers.

* The ISM routinely sends out "news reports" in which armed terrorists arrested for attacking or murdering Israeli civilians by the Israeli army are described as "innocent Palestinians" arrested for no reason at all, or labeled "peace activists."

* The ISM falsely claims that Israeli soldiers use Palestinian children for "target practice." Uda Walker, “Education and Political Coordinator” for the ISM’s Middle East Children’s Alliance, made such claims when debating me at DiabloValleyCollege in California. When challenged she could not cite any specifics. Reporting false atrocities, however, is part of the ISM's mission to destroy Israel "by any means necessary," a common subjectof the group's activities, meetings and seminars. The ISM still sends out dispatches and "news items" in which it claims thousands of Palestinians were "massacred" in Jenin, despite acknowledgement by the Palestinian Authority that most of the 56 Palestinians killed were armed combatants.

Clearly devoid of credibility, such “news reports” as sent out by the ISM seldom appear in the mainstream media. Yet Google News has decided to afford the ISM equal credibility by posting its propaganda missives alongside genuine news stories from major news agencies—a dangerous precedent. Another troubling sign is that Google News’ acceptance of the ISM’s submissions will get ISM material out to a wide audience unfamiliar with the tactics and goals of the ISM.

Reports indicate that the Palestine Authority is eager to capitalize on the opportunity to improve its image. Among the PA’s plans is a new Palestine News Network (PNN, like CNN). Licensed by the Palestinian Authority, PNN will work alongside the ISM to broadcast the official Palestinian line to the outside world under the guise of objective news coverage.

Taken together, these developments pose a major threat to any objective newsgathering about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinian Authority already boasts nineteen propaganda ministries and a controlled press. And thanks to the sympathetic spirits at Google, international anarchists in the ISM will now be given considerable influence over media reportage by the PLO. Indeed, the ISM’s bid to attain “news agency” status seems to be part of a new effort by the PLO to infiltrate mainstream news agencies to generate a new image for terrorists from the PLO. As the “peace process” drags on due to unending attacks by terrorist groups, the PA is hoping that an added dose of fulsome media coverage will save it from taking steps to crack down on terror.

For that very reason, radical activists have wasted no time taking part. For instance, Kristen Ess, a longtime ISM activist and broadcaster for the worldwide radical news website systemIndymedia, will now be heading the PNN’s English language division. Previously, one only heard Ess’s reports on Indymedia or Pacifica Radio, another leftist news source that some have called the Voice of Palestine. (Readers can get an idea of the kind of material Kristen and the PPN will be creating to report by clicking here.) Ess is certainly suited for her new job: radical broadcasting services like Indymedia and Pacifica inveterately accuse American troops in Iraq and Israeli anti-terrorist forces of attacks on “innocent civilians and children.” In the same way, the PNN habitually airs fabrications about American soldiers murdering innocent children and civilians on a regular basis.

To be sure, the relationship between journalists covering the conflict and Palestinian terrorist factions has always been uncomfortably close. Nothing illustrates that more starkly than a recent YnetNews.com report about journalists from Reuters who, during a going-away party for a fellow Reuters correspondent, screened a video featuring Zakaria Zubaidi, an Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade terrorist who has been named by security officials as a key figure in organizing terror attacks on Israeli civilians. Sitting in Reuters’ Jenin office, the terrorist posed as a Reuters executive. Reuters’ staff who attended the screening described Zubeidi’s impersonation as “very funny.” A Reuters spokeswoman confirmed the video’s existence, but said the London-based news organization is “not associated with any group or faction in any conflict.”

The same cannot be said of the ISM or the PNN, both of whom have a stake in demonizing Israel. As for the ISM’s collusion with Google News, it does not bode well for the peace process. If anything, the amplification of anti-Israel propaganda is likely to encourage terrorist organizations and their supporters to continue their war for Israel’s destruction.

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